Real-Life Voyage Into The Hollow Earth?

By James Donahue

For years I have been reading strange stories about how Admiral Richard Byrd flew into some kind of a vortex, or entrance to another world in the center of the Earth during one of his exploratory expeditions to the North Pole.

And I have known about a Hollow Earth Society of believers. But I always thought it was some kind of a gag. Something like the Church of Bob. A number of “believers” who share a “tongue-in-cheek” joke that goes to the extreme.

But if it is a joke, someone forgot to tell explorer Steve Currey, of Provo, Utah. Currey, who has traveled some of the toughest rivers of the world and shot photographs for National Geographic, has chartered a Russian nuclear icebreaker and is offering a charter trip for 100 people for a historic voyage “beyond the North Pole.”

His expedition promises scientific observations as the ship cracks its way through the ice through the Arctic Sea toward the North Pole. Currey says he wants to go to 84.4 N. Latitude, 141 E. Longitude and “resolve once and for all whether the hollow earth theory has any validity.”

A promotional article states: “Don’t miss this chance to personally visit that paradise within our earth via the North Polar Opening and meet the highly advanced, friendly people who live there.”

The expedition is expected to depart Murmansk, Russia, on June 26, 2006. The icebreaker will head north to the geographic North Pole north of Franz Josef Land. From here the ship will direct its course toward the New Siberian Islands on Meridian 141 East Longitude. 

“It is estimated that within about 600 miles from the North Pole on this meridian the expedition will reach the open ocean of inner earth,” the article says. “If we are successful in finding the polar opening, then within 1,700 miles from any farthest north Arctic land bordering the Arctic Ocean, we should reach the inner continent just as Admiral Richard E. Byrd did on his 1947 flight beyond the pole.”

The story continued: “. . . the admiral and his airplane crew accomplished a physical flight of seven hours duration in a northerly direction beyond the North Pole. Every mile and every minute of that journey beyond was over ice, water, or land that no explorer had seen . . . as progress was made beyond the Pole point, there was observed directly under the plane’s course iceless land and lakes, and mountains where foliage was abundant. Moreover, a brief newspaper account of the flight held that a member of the admiral’s crew had observed a monstrous greenish-hued animal moving through the underbrush.”

After that, the story gets quite incredible. It suggests that the lost tribes of Israel are living in the hollow core of the Earth, that their leader is a descendant of King David, and that the capitol city is a place called Jehu.

The price tag for this strange adventure is #19,000, and Currey makes no promises that the expedition will find the entrance to the hollow earth. The fee pays for hotel accommodations, the trip on the ship which is described as a floating palace, meals, lectures and helicopter trips to look at points of interest.

The bottom line: “At all times the expedition will be at the mercy of the weather, ice and sea conditions,” the promotional article concludes.